Some background: I have 2 polygon shape files with approximately 500,000 records each. The two files are identical in terms of field structure.

Using ArcGIS 10.0 I can'nt merge these two files using Geoprocessing / Merge. ArcMap allways crashes somewhere in the middle of the process.

Is there any open source software that can do this job? QGIS has the function: Vector/ Merging shape file into one , but there was a reported bug with this function in the current version 1.7. I know GDAL can do a lot of things and wonder if GDAL or some other opensource software can do this properly.

--skipfailures makes sure you continue if you encounter a bad record, too. I would add it if the process is taking too long.
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Ragi Yaser BurhumMay 8 '12 at 15:56

Thanks jzl5325, this is what I was looking for (beside the alternative to do it in ArcMap). I think there is a good demand for a task-oriented manual/userguide for GDAL rather than syntax. Something like the one in your answer that begin with a task: i.e. to merge 2 shp file, to convert from mapinfo tab to esri shp. A long list of "to do this with GDAL" will be very useful.
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anh.hvMay 9 '12 at 10:17

@anh.hv Agreed. Something I would love to do if I had a bit more time. I suspect that something like that will not happen until A)it is a part of some college coursework or B)It gets funded by a sponsor to GDAL.
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Jay LauraMay 9 '12 at 20:13